The present invention pertains to the art of food production and, more particularly, to a scalper system and method for removing clumps of food product from single product pieces. The invention has particular application in separating food clumps from individual cereal pieces.
Various food products are intended to be formed as individual pieces. However, given the rate at which the food products are produced for mass production, it is not uncommon for either multiple food products to be stuck together or extra clumps of food to be attached to the individual pieces. In these situations, provisions are often made to separate or remove the additional food material in order to establish the individual pieces for subsequent processing and packaging. For instance, it is known to produce various individual food products from cereal dough. Such products include Ready-to-Eat (RTE) cereals, often referred to as breakfast cereals, and other snack products. These products can be prepared in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, compositions, textures, flavors and the like. After these products are formed from the cereal dough, and perhaps coated with a sugary slurry, the products need to be dried. After the drying phase, it will be found that some of the hardened pieces are stuck together and/or a sugary build-up from a hardened sugar slurry is clumped onto the individual pieces. Prior to further processing of the food product, it is desirable to separate any pieces which are stuck together and remove any clumps from the single food pieces.
In the past, this separation function has been performed by discharging the food pieces onto an elongated, vibrating screen. Basically, the screen is defined by a series of metal grates having numerous holes or slots along their entire lengths. The shaking of the screen, in combination with the inherent edges established by the screen, would cause multiple pieces to break apart and additional, clumped material to be broken off as the individual pieces are conveyed along the screen. By the time the pieces made their way to the end of the elongated screen, the substantial majority of the food product would be defined by individual, discrete pieces.
Certainly, it is not uncommon for a single production line to be used for making various distinct products. In making individual food products in accordance with the present invention, when a product changeover is to occur, the entire scalper system needs to be cleaned. As can be imagined, cleaning an elongated screen is quite time consuming. In fact, in some instances, a single scalper can require two hours to clean. Obviously, this period adds to overall production down time and results in production inefficiencies.